Mining companies typically focus on engaging with and educating local communities regarding mining activities, but often overlook the opportunity to include the regulatory community in this activity. In the Fraser Institute 2015 Annual Survey, Ontario was recently reported as one of the lowest ranking jurisdiction for efficiency, transparency and certainty in permitting. Multiple factors influence this situation and amongst them is the awareness of issues specific to mining compared to other industries. In conversation between industry and regulators, an opportunity to expand knowledge to better inform the permitting process was identified. To that effect, The Ontario Mining Association (OMA) Environment Committee in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change launched the “Mining 101” workshop initiative. The response was positive and the workshops were taken on the road to the regional offices. Material was also developed for the “Mining 201” subject specific workshops such as management of tailings. Ongoing engagement between industry and regulators is important to the success of mining projects and an opportunity to increase awareness on objectives, obligations and challenges of both parties

Battery powered LHD are gaining more and more interest. The development of new battery chemistry allows more run time but also incites new thinking approach to the usage of LHDs in a steady production environment.

A lot of organizations embark on excellence journeys, however, few ever make it to their envisaged destination. This presentation will explore the reasons behind this and suggest ways to ensure successes.

This presentation is a comparison of Peroxide, Lithium Metaborate Fusions and strong acid methods for trace metals and major oxides, in the context of occupational health and safety, metal recovery, precision and accuracy. SGS’s instrumentation breakthrough has widened the reporting range from ultratrace level to oregrade level through a single instrumentation pass, allowing the best recoveries and detection limits for the widest range of elements at a lower cost.

Field instrumentation data from extensometers can be used to predict load on support and aid in calibrating computer models. As a stope is blasted, extensometers will react to blasting, changing stress conditions, changing rock mass conditions as well as changes to the opening geometry. This paper looks at trends between changing stope hanging wall geometry and the movement rate, as a tool to predict the deformation mechanism and the possible approach of instability. Instrumentation case...

Improving Mine and Mill production is an ongoing project at every mine site. There are many things we can do to improve the equipment that we use, but generally the biggest improvements are related to the size of the material that is being mined and milled. This paper will provide a review of the efforts to improve the productivity of Mine and Mill equipment through the optimization of blasting at Taseko’s Gibraltar Mine, and the results that have been achieved.

This critical review is intended to provide a concise introduction to application of biological methods for mining impacted water treatment. With emerging biological technologies it is imperative for decision makers and technical experts to be familiar with the underlying factors governing the successful application of biological methods. Specifically, an introduction to microbiology and genomics is presented in the context of current and emerging biological methods for the removal of nitrate...

The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) held the second workshop on the State of Practice in water and mineral waste management. This presentation provides a summary of both the MAC and CIM initiatives for water, tailings and mineral waste management. CIM and MAC strategies to promote water and mineral waste management as a core business function will be discussed. A summary of presentations by industry experts and...

On December 12, 2015 Gibraltar mine achieved a significant milestone of operating two years Lost Time Incident Free. In February of 2016, Gibraltar Mine was awarded the John Ash Award, presented annually to the open Pit mine in BC working more than 1 million man-hours with the lowest lost time incident frequency. This marks the second year in a row Gibraltar had been recognized for their safety performance through this award. Since 2005, Gibraltar Mine has reduced its Combined MA/LT...

The previous four decades, particularly the last, have seen many Research & Development efforts attempt to develop autonomous mining solutions. While autonomy is the ultimate level of automation, many other intermediate levels of automation exist.This paper discusses the relative values and costs associated with the various levels of automation. It compares the path taken by some of the key developers toward autonomous mining. It also highlights the major repercussions these divergent...

Not all closed TSFs enjoy a lowered levels of risk. Reducing risks and increasing safety after tailing storage facility (TSF) closure is a key goal and one that remains elusive at many mines around the world. This presentation will look at risk at different stages of the TSF life cycle and propose that the risk of failure after closure can be reduced. The authors will explore essential ideas that mining companies and governments associate with ‘walk away closure’. The paper will discuss how...

Hyperspectral core imaging is an innovative and cost effective automated core logging technique. The SGS / Corescan partnership combines SGS geological and metallurgical expertise and on-site lab management strengths with Corescan’s proprietary HCI-3 hyperspectral core imaging technology. This system has a very high signal to noise ratio allowing imaging of dark rocks. It provides objective data for core and chip samples onsite and at a level of mineralogical detail that has never been...

A new international standards work program is underway through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to develop a series of international standards that will provide requirements and recommendations for mine closure and reclamation, with a focus on reducing the environmental risks and environmental impacts of mining. Nine countries are actively participating in the standards development program, including all of the most significant mining countries in the world. This...

Canada, due to its rich rare earth deposits, its mining and mineral processing expertise, and its record of successful resource development, is well positioned to profit from demand in rare earth elements. However, while the potential is huge, the challenges are daunting. A new Technical Committee initiated by China under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has the potential to address some of those challenges. The ISO Rare Earths Technical Committee, led by China,...

Teck formalized Operating Excellence in 2008, and it has become a core value at our operations which demands that we strive towards superior performance across all operating dimensions. Nurturing a culture of continuous improvement to achieve superior performance is a key aspect of reinforcing operating excellence as a core value. A culture of continuous improvement was established through leadership that strives to achieve improvement objectives in high impact areas of operations through a...

Mining company profits are being pressured by the uncertainty that remains in the global economy and by a cost and profitability curve that has grown tight over the past twenty years. This is why it is critical Operational Stability – the predictability of expected mine production, costs, and performance levels – be attained. Getting there requires mining and plant processing activities function at higher levels of productivity and efficiency so that conformance plan is always realized. ...

Relate past experiences and vision of the future after 20 years of operation under the Raglan Agreement ratified in 1995, the first Impact and Benefits Agreement (IBA) in Canada. In preparation for the next 25 years, a review of the Raglan Agreement was conducted in consultation with business partners the two Inuit communities, Salluit and Kangirsujuaq and Makivik Corporation: several lessons learned and opportunities will be shared. The objective is to establish a common vision on the...

A comprehensive traditional knowledge study was conducted in support of permitting and project planning of the landmark Mary River Project, an iron ore mine in the high arctic. A community-led approach was used to direct and design the study, and information was collected through a combination of individual interviews and theme-based workshops. The study was an important means of engaging the communities potentially affected by the Project, filled key gaps in the environmental baseline...

In the case of this project, and in collaboration with AccurassayLaboratories, we tested different analytical methods, ICP-MS for REE andtrace elements, INAA for REE and trace elements, XRF on selected REE andmajor elements and ICP-AES for major elements on selected high grade REEmineralized samples to see the behavior of the different analytical methodson a magnetite rich matrix that characterize the REE-enriched IOCG KwyjiboProject. Interestingly there is major discrepancies between...

The purpose of the study was to conduct a systematic review of published literature on different Mining Operations. A checklist of sought-after data was developed. Although the goal was to find material for undergraduate teaching particularly in the area of rock mechanics, this information is also of value to historians and researchers interested in the Canadian mining industry. The study mainly focused on papers that could be found from on-line databases using tools available at the...

An often overlooked aspect of mining-associated processes is the biology on a microscopic scale. While small, microbes can exert massive influence (beneficial or detrimental) on a variety of chemical and geochemical processes, acting as catalysts to accelerate reactions or enable them to occur in a wider range of conditions. Additionally, microbes can impact physical processes, such as altering flows through fouling and/or corrosion. As a whole, the microbiological aspect of mining-associat...

The mining industry often operates in very remote geographical regions, particularly in Canada. In certain instances these environments are inhabited by local communities that self-identify as Aboriginal, Indigenous or in the Canadian context, as First Nations. In Canada, expectations from Aboriginal communities to benefit from mining activity in their territories have never been higher. In addition to helping secure a social licence to operate from Aboriginal communities, purchasing goods...

Energy in mining is a highly complex variable which accounts for approximately 30% of operational costs, and therefore, the mining company that successfully manages energy efficiency is a company with a major competitive advantage.

The challenge in mining and mineral processing operations is actually quite simple: to understand where energy is being utilized, how much is being used, and to identify the best strategies for optimizing usage and targeting the best cost/ benefit opportunities.

This presentation will discuss how mining professionals can leverage tools, such as the Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, to recognize naturally evolving from potentially disruptive cross-industry innovations. Suggestions on when to enter the innovation adoption lifecycle and how to secure buy-in within an organization (users, influencers, buyers, decision-makers, gatekeepers) will be discussed through three personal stories. The first story will detail experiences implementing...

In 2013 Red Lake Gold Mines (owned and operated by Goldcorp Inc.) was successful exploring at the H.G Young exploration project area located in Northwestern Ontario. The H.G Young mine was a small historic gold producer during the 1960’s focused on the mining of narrow quartz-tourmaline +/- scheelite Au veins. These veins were typically 0.3-1.2 m wide and hosted by the Balmer Assemblage (2.99-2.96 Ga). This is dominated by tholeiitic basalt flows, komatiite, and komatiitic basalt with some...

While the surface mining industry was greatly advanced with the introduction of global positioning systems (GPS) in the 1990s, no comparable technology yet exists underground. Similarly, 3D mapping underground is an emerging field but so far has been mostly constrained to conventional, stationary surveying set-ups.This presentation covers the authors' work in developing a mobile underground positioning and mapping technology for the mining industry. This LIDAR-based approach has succeeded...

“Financing mining projects in the current economic climate is a difficult task, especially for small to mid-size companies. Conventional sources of debt and equity finance have been drying up steadily [...], and now with the prices of mining stocks near record lows, a credit crunch [...], and plunging metal prices reducing cash flow, mining companies have few funding alternatives.” That statement was made as part of paper that I presented 16 years ago in February 1999. Though that sentiment...

At the September 2015 International Plenary Meeting for ISO TC 82 (Mining), a motion was put forward to establish a new subcommittee under TC 82 focused on Autonomous Mining. Canada was subsequently invited to provide the Chair of this international subcommittee. This presentation will provide an overview of the work activities of this new ISO committee on autonomous mining, and will also detail the benefits for the Canadian mining industry with respect to Canada taking such a leadership...

It is generally accepted that implementing integrated operations planning and execution is a best practice that should yield significant improvements in efficiencies and costs. Over the last decade, several mining and metals companies have attempted to or are in the process of designing and implementing Integrated Operations, either through a control room or a larger operations centre, with varying degrees of success. The authors were interested to create an environment where mining industry...

Operating a site like Raglan Mine is costly (between 30% and 60% more than down south) due to many factors including building and maintaining multiple mine and service infrastructure sites, which require heating and power, maintaining roads and transport vehicles, geological and mining complexity as well as logistics, climate, etc.

To maintain a competitive edge, Raglan Mine needs to create value and turn every form of problem (waste) into an opportunity for improvement. The better Raglan...

The exploration, extraction and processing of potash requires particular planning and test work,amongst others, due to the high solubility of the salt minerals and their partly hygroscopic behavior.For the same reason the selection of suitable exploration methods, exploration density and evaluationof the results are of crucial importance. As potash deposits occur mostly unexposed the onlypossibility to get material and, therefore, detailed information from the subsurface is through...

While the focus of companies in most industries has progressed from competing on efficiency and effectiveness to competing on continuous innovation; the mining and minerals sector has not significantly changed.

Business ecosystems have been employed by a number of sectors such as information communications technology, aerospace/defense, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals to significantly accelerate innovation, decrease cost and risk, increase revenue and grow shareholder value. Many products...

The mining and minerals industry has been talking about innovation for decades. Calls for innovation and fundamental change by senior executives in the industry and others are escalating. Yet, evidence suggests the mining industry is not employing innovation as a key enabler for our industry. Our approach to innovation is in general not linked to corporate strategy but focuses on small specific improvements at individual mine sites.

Simplistic Pb, Zn and Ag recovery models were initially applied to the Red Dog Main deposit and subsequently improved to include a chemical analysis-based zinc recovery model. In 2004 a comprehensive geometallurgical program on the Aqqaluk orebody resulted in refinement of the existing universal Zn recovery model, and development of new Pb and Ag recovery models. The significant geometallurgical challenges posed by the complex paragenesis and overprinting relationships that characterize...

CI is a well-known proactive improvement method used in many industries. It originally started with work by Edward Deming and the Japanese manufacturing industry. Within Caterpillar, Continuous Improvement was launched via our Six Sigma quality improvement processes, but CI can also be used within any quality process that the mining industry may be using. The key to CI is to understand that it is based on incremental improvement efforts, fully supported and engaged at the employee level, is...

In order to contribute to global efforts of deterring corruption and promoting transparency in the oil and gas and mining industries, the Government of Canada enacted the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA) as part of the Economic Action Plan 2014. The act requires public disclosure of payments over $100,000 from oil, gas or mining companies to all foreign and domestic governments. Eventually, public disclosure of payments will also apply to Aboriginal governments. The act is...

This paper starts from the thesis that there is a correlation between resource conflict and the underlying worldviews of the project opponents. The methodology to “quantify” a person’s worldview and their propensity to be supportive of resource development is described in the paper. A 142 item worldview and resource development questionnaire was developed and administered to a “random” selection of 297 individuals from around the world who identified their gender, age, location and...

The concept of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is not new. Despite being first introduced in the 80s, and getting attention through the United Nations Declaration of Rights for Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) it still hasn’t quite made it into the reality of mining today. However, recently the Supreme Court of Canada’s Tsilhqot’in decision brought it in the spotlight. The outcome is an increase in community expectations, increased pressure on governments to legislate, pressure on industry...

Mining companies typically focus on engaging with and educating local communities regarding mining activities, but often overlook the opportunity to include the regulatory community in this activity. In the Fraser Institute 2015 Annual Survey, Ontario was recently reported as one of the lowest ranking jurisdiction for efficiency, transparency and certainty in permitting. Multiple factors influence this situation and amongst them is the awareness of issues specific to mining compared to other...

It is now common practice to build complex structural geology models for mining operations. These often lack a geotechnical perspective and do not conform to the requirements necessary to understand and effectively model, rock mass behaviour. Here we describe the aspects of structural geology that are important for the geotechnical engineer, and suggest tools to improve communication between the structural geologist and the engineer. This is illustrated in a 3-D structural and domain...

The presentation will identify some of the common geological data collection and integration problems that can affect the resource modeling process. These issues are a concern not just for greenfield and brownfield exploration projects but for producing mines as well. Potential solutions and data collection techniques that can be used to produce a reasonably accurate, non-biased resource block model and estimate will be discussed.

If you can’t use the collected data, what’s the point. All too often good data management is sacrificed. Without an economic intercept it’s seen as an unnecessary expense that doesn’t provide any direct benefit, financial or informational, to a project. In reality, defining workflows and data structure early on to properly collect, manage and distribute project information is more likely to save money and more quickly advance a project. These steps will ensure that collected data is...

Hydrothermal alteration mapping differs from conventional bedrock mapping in that it requires the input of a large number of outcrop observations and field tests, including the mineral interpretations from infrared spectroscopic analyses of most outcrops that were visited. This large amount of information is best collected digitally using GPS-bearing handheld devices and mobile GIS in order to efficiently manage the data generated in the field. Besides collecting information on weathering,...

This paper presents a method for estimating stress change at a mine using commonly recorded drift closure data. A software program is presented that converts closure station data to approximate stress change, thus allowing mine operators to frequently and inexpensively estimate changes in induced stresses in their mine. This program is calibrated using shape variation. Quantifying induced stresses post mining is key to validating computer models for mine design, and for input into empirical...

Teck Highland Valley Copper Partnership has implemented a piezometer network and telemetry system to automatically collect pore pressure data in the walls of the Valley and Lornex Pits, and a database system to interactively manage and graphically present the data. The system provides real time plotting and monitoring of pore pressures in the slope, and allows downloading of data for more rigorous assessments. Groundwater monitoring data collected using this system inform the conceptual...

Integration of environmental and engineering studies leads to effective and more efficient project delivery. The schedule for engineering studies (e.g., prefeasibility and feasibility stages) must align with environmental processes (e.g., environmental assessment, permitting, community engagement / consultation). If the engineering and environmental studies precede independently changes in the project design often pose a risk to project scope, cost and schedule. The environmental team...

There is now a very active international standards development program for the mining sector through ISO TC 82 (Mining). The scope of ISO TC 82 includes specifications related to specialised mining machinery and equipment used in opencast mines (e.g. conveyors, high wall miners, rock drill rigs and continuous surface miners) and all underground mining machinery and equipment for the extraction of solid mineral substances; recommended practice in the presentation of plans and drawings used in...

Industries face several challenges when working in remote locations. Remote projects have their unique problems that are caused mainly by the remoteness of the project itself such as extreme working conditions, often in isolated locations, facing higher risks than sites in well located areas. Provision of adequate medical care is fundamental to ensuring the required health and well-being for remote employees as well as maintaining business continuity. This can be particular challenge in a...